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45b5e3f
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Love, when you get fear in it, it's not love any more. It's hate.
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hate
love
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James M. Cain |
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9d4a93f
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Stealing a man's wife, that's nothing, but stealing his car, that's larceny.
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James M. Cain |
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8b1d5dd
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I loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake
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love
noir
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James M. Cain |
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5999e19
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I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.
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money
murder
women
noir
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James M. Cain |
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d3cd069
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If you have to do it, you can do it.
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James M. Cain |
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936b637
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I kissed her. Her eyes were shining up at me like two blue stars. It was like being in church.
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James M. Cain |
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8eae399
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I ripped all her clothes off. She twisted and turned, slow, so they would slip out from under her. Then she closed her eyes and lay back on the pillow. Her hair was falling over her shoulders in snaky curls. Her eye was all black, and her breasts weren't drawn up and pointing up at me, but soft, and spread out in two big pink splotches. She looked like the great grandmother of every whore in the world. The devil got his money's worth that n..
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sex
noir
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James M. Cain |
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1e55f1a
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The hand that holds the money cracks the whip.
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James M. Cain |
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b5af705
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They threw me off the haytruck about noon.
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James M. Cain |
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1062361
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She was a little given to rehearsing things in her mind, and having imaginary triumphs over people who had upset her in one way and another.
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James M. Cain |
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dfe7387
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Tomorrow night, if I come back, there'll be kisses. Lovely ones, Frank. Not drunken kisses. Kisses with dreams in them. Kisses that come from life, not death.
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James M. Cain |
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0812326
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A home is not a museum. It doesn't have to be furnished with Picasso paintings, or Sheraton suites, or Oriental rugs, or Chinese pottery. But it does have to be furnished with things that mean something to you.
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James M. Cain |
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8423919
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A woman is a funny animal.
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James M. Cain |
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04287eb
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let's get stinko.
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James M. Cain |
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411f666
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O.K." "Gee I'm glad." "Me too. I'm so sick of hot dogs and beer and apple pie with cheese on the side I could heave it all in the river." "You'll love it, Frank. We'll get a place up in the mountains, where it's cool, and then, after I get my act ready, we can go all over the world with it. Go as we please, do as we please, and have plenty of money to spend. Have you got a little bit of gypsy in you?" "Gypsy? I had rings in my ears when I w..
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James M. Cain |
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1231e96
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A year and a half had indeed made some changes in Veda's appearance. She was still no more than medium height, but her haughty carriage made her seem taller. The hips were as slim as ever, but had taken on some touch of voluptuousness. The legs were Mildred's, to the last graceful contour. But the most noticeable change was what Monty brutally called the Dairy: two round, swelling protuberances that had appeared almost overnight on the high..
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James M. Cain |
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83cc34e
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She looked like the great grandmother of every whore in the world. The devil got his money's worth that night.
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James M. Cain |
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0e12bc0
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We only have two kinds of weather in California, magnificent and unusual.
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weather
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James M. Cain |
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eeb5fdf
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There's a shark. Following the ship.' I tried not to look, but couldn't help it. I saw a flash of dirty white down in the green. We walked back to the deck chairs. Walter, we'll have to wait. Till the moon comes up.' I guess we better have a moon.' I want to see that fin. That black fin. Cutting the water in the moonlight.
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James M. Cain |
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dc1d39d
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There was something unnatural, a little unhealthy, about the way she inhaled Veda's smell as she dedicated the rest of her life to this child who had been spared.
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James M. Cain |
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a5a0770
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Mildred sat quite still, and when she heard Veda drive off she was consumed by a fury so cold that it almost seemed as though she felt nothing at all. It didn't occur to her that she was acting less like a mother than like a lover who had unexpectedly discovered an act of faithlessness, and avenged it.
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James M. Cain |
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959a030
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We're just two punks, Frank. God kissed us on the brow that night. He gave us all that two people can ever have and we just weren't the kind that could have it. [I]t's a big airplane engine, that takes you through the sky, right up to the top of the mountain. But when you put it in a Ford, it just shakes it to pieces. That's what we are, Frank, a couple of Fords.
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James M. Cain |
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6239dea
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I knew then what I had done. I had killed a man. I had killed a man to get a woman. I had put myself in her power, so there was one person in the world that could point a a finger at me, and I would have to die. I had done all that for her, and I never want to see her again as long as I lived. That's all it takes, one drop of fear, to curdle love into hate.
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hate
love
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James M. Cain |
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750e7ce
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By nine, Mildred was powdered, puffed, perfumed, and patted to that state of semi-transparency that a woman seems to achieve when she is really dressed to go out.
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James M. Cain |
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d79139e
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if he can write a book at all, a writer cannot do it by peeping over his shoulder at somebody else, any more than a woman can have a baby by watching some other woman have one. It is a genital process, and all of its stages are intra-abdominal;
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writing
writing-a-book
writers-on-writing
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James M. Cain |
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2fb71ad
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Yes, I have actually mined coal, and distilled liquor, as well as seen a girl in a pink dress, and seen her take it off. I am 54 years old, weigh 220 pounds, and look like the chief dispatcher of a long-distance driving concern. I am a registered Democrat. I drink.
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James M. Cain |
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decabbf
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When Mildred went to bed her stomach hurt from laughter, her heart ached from happiness. Then she remembered that while Veda had kissed her, that first moment when she had entered the house, she still hadn't kissed Veda. She tiptoed into the room she had hoped Veda would occupy, knelt beside the bed as she had knelt so many times in Glendale, took the lovely creature in her arms and kissed her, hard, on the mouth.
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James M. Cain |
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32705bd
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Then she got up, went to Monty's mirror, and began combing her hair, while little cadenzas absentmindedly cascaded out of her throat, and cold drops cascaded over Mildred's heart. For Veda was stark naked. From the massive, singer's torso, with the Dairy quaking in front, to the slim hips, to the lovely legs, there wasn't so much as a garter to hide a path of skin.
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James M. Cain |
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51edefb
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Up close, she could see the sharp, cold, look that she constantly shot at Mr. Treviso, particularly when there was a break, and she was waiting to come in. It shattered illusion for Mildred. She preferred to remain at a distance, to enjoy this child as she seemed, rather than as she was.
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James M. Cain |
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5804e2d
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Veda began it, but when she finished it, or whether she finished it, Mildred never quite knew. Little quivers went through her and they kept going through her the rest of the night, during the supper party, when Veda sat with the white scarf wound around her throat, during the brief half hour, while she undressed Veda, and put the costume away; in the dark, while she lay there alone, trying to sleep, not wanting to sleep. This was the clima..
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James M. Cain |
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1e4e4d9
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With this money I can get away from you. From you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack with its cheap furniture, and this town and its dollar days, and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls. You think just because you've made a little money you can get a new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady. But you can't, b..
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James M. Cain |
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0d14277
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Under those blue pajamas was a shape to set a man nuts . . . .
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James M. Cain |
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6ecf6a6
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Not so fast, baby - let us pause and examine that idea. Why would he want to take you out? Why do they ever want to take us out? As a compliment to us, say they. To show us a good time, to prove the high regard they have for us. They're a pack of goddam liars. In addition to being dirty bastards, and very dumb clucks, they are also goddam liars. There's practically nothing can be said in favour of them, except they're the only ones we've go..
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James M. Cain |
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7c6fdef
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A receptionist is a lazy dame that can't do anything on earth, and wants to sit out front where everybody can watch her do it. She's the one in the black silk dress, cut low in the neck and high in the legs, just inside the gate, in front of that little one-position switchboard, that she gets a right number out of now and then, mostly then. You know, the one that tells you to have a seat, Mr Doakes will see you in just a few minutes. Then s..
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James M. Cain |
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a353413
|
I understood it now, understood a lot of things I had never understood before. And mostly I understood what a woman could mean to a man. Before, she had been a pair of eyes, and a shape, something to get excited about. Now she seemed something to lean on, and draw something from, that nothing else could give me. I thought of books I had read, about worship of the Earth, and how she was always called Mother, and none of it made much sense, b..
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James M. Cain |
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36f8784
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He was enthusiastic about everything, but when she came in with the pie he grew positively lyrical.
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James M. Cain |
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4cf61af
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I mobili erano spagnoli, del genere bellini a vedersi e scomodi a sedersi.
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James M. Cain |
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bb288d8
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En realidad, lo unico que quise en este mundo fue a ella. Pero eso es bastante. No creo que muchas mujeres consigan ni siquiera eso.
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James M. Cain |
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7e47335
|
Just you and me and the road. Just a couple of tramps, just a couple of gypsies, that's it, but we'll be together.
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road
tramps
gypsies
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James M. Cain |
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120c76e
|
Though she was only eleven she was something to look at twice.
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James M. Cain |
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203d3f3
|
Her hair, which was a coppery red, and her eyes, which were light blue like her mother's, were all the more vivid by contrast with the scramble of freckles and sunburn which formed her complexion.
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James M. Cain |
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10d4e34
|
Yes, it was rape, but only technical, brother, only technical. Above the waist, maybe she was worried about the sacrilegio, but from the waist down she wanted me, bad. There couldn't be any doubt about that.
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rape
|
James M. Cain |
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28e4af2
|
piece of cardboard on which was written, in his Mediterranean handwriting, the
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James M. Cain |
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5ffca5a
|
on a plane I like to be left to myself, as the clouds and the sky and drone of the motor all make me feel dreamy, and dreams are a solo enterprise.
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James M. Cain |